Spring: Changes
by Wilona Riva
Summary: Chronicling Danny's first 100 years as the Spirit of Spring. Sequel to Spring.
1. 5 years

Spring: Changes

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

_The first two chapters were written before I read the 4th book in the series. Mother Nature's name is staying Seraphina. _

* * *

**5 YEARS - Fenton Works, Jack's Lake **

* * *

The first time Daniel noticed the changes signalling the time of the end, was the day before MIM's school was scheduled to open. It took a lot of business finangling and hiding the building from the humans' satellites to get it finished. The Spirits of the Seasons were sent as messengers by Mother Nature to invite all juvenile spirits to attend the school.

Daniel was shutting the window, when the sound of a chair scraping across the floor caught his attention. He turned around, emerald eyes flickering to his mother's shadow crossing over to the light switch. "Hi, Maddie," he greeted her. He didn't know when he'd stopped calling her 'mom' or even 'mother', but it seemed natural to him.

The electric light came on; Maddie walked over and took the bundles from him. "What happened to your clothes, Danny?"

"Um..." Daniel looked down at his barefeet. He still wore the jeans Maddie and he had gone shopping for a few days ago before he'd been called away to the West Indies to help Leto try to calm down a former nature goddess named Guabancex, albeit now stained with mud and salt water. The black and purple button-down dress shirt he wore had been given to him by Baron Samedi, after Daniel had threated to call down his grandfather on the old skeletal coot. He'd been chasing after Leto again, when the girl took to wearing West African print mini-skirts.

"Never mind," she sighed. "So, what did you bring back?"

"Some Barbados cherries and a few of those cherimoya that you like," he replied, noticing for the first time the faint lines around her eyes and the streaks of iron-grey in her hair. "Mom, are you alright?"

"It's late, Danny," she said, looking at the microwave clock. "Or rather a bit early in the morning to be thinking. Go get some rest. School begins in a few hours."

Daniel nodded. "Night, Maddie."

Maddie watched her son float to the ceiling, turn intangible, and float through. "I'm going to miss you, Danny," she whispered to herself. Looking back at the clock, she smiled thinly. _Happy fiftieth birthday, Maddie Fenton._

"Hi, Little Brother!" Jazz sang, throwing open the sunlit curtains. "Time to rise and shine."

"Go away, Jazz," Daniel groaned, raising his messy snow-white hair to glare at her from the quilt he was cocooned in. "I just got in."

"About three hours ago, judging from the noise Mom was making in the kitchen," Jazz said, unceremoniously grabbing the quilt and dumping him onto the floor. He got up and threw a ball of lavender petals at her. She laughed and left the room. "Thanks, Danny!"

Daniel grumbled and went to his closet to grab whatever outfit Maddie had chosen for him to wear, a tradition every year she had. Stumbling downstairs half an hour later, hair still wet from his shower, he handed his mortal mother a beautiful blue silk wrapped package. "Maddie, this is for you. The Lord of the Deep sends his regards."

"So that's where you disappeared to last year instead of going to the races with Bunnymund," his sister muttered furiously. "I should have known."

"It wasn't free, Jazz," he told her tiredly. "Maddie, I know I may not call you 'mother' anymore, but you are the truest mother any one can ever have. Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you." Saying so, he hugged her tightly.

Maddie rested her head on her son's shoulder, hugging him tightly in return. _You will miss this, Maddie. He has begun the separation process. Seraphina warned you this would happen._

"Aren't you going to open it, Mads!" Jack's voice returned her to reality. Releasing Danny, her son looked at her too knowingly. Picking up the package, she unwrapped the blue silk paper, then exclaimed at the contents.

"Daniel, this is...I don't know what to say," she said, pulling out a silver, filigree bracelet with sapphires set here and there.

"Just enjoy the moment, Mom," he said, smiling for the first time that day.

"Sapphires are beautiful reminders of the deep sea, Madeline," the beautiful voice of Seraphina Pitchner came to their ears, as the woman let herself in through the back door. She held up two garment bags, one of which she handed to Maddie, the other to Daniel.

"Upstairs, go and change now," she ordered him. "You still have time to eat, get changed, and take council with your brother and sisters and I after this sojourn."

"Right," he muttered, forgetting that Seraphina did not want her children to embarrass her on the first day MIM's school was opening. After today, he would be residing in a new dwelling she had designed for her sons and daughters. Turning, he saluted her, and in human fashion, walked out the door and up the stairs to his room. Maddie's blue eyes flashed anger; she was furious that this tall, regal woman was usurping her place in her son's life, even down to the yearly tradition of choosing the clothes he'd wear on the first day of the school year.

Turning her attention back to Maddie, Mother Nature handed her the other garment bag. "As Daniel has made a trade with the Lord of the Deep, so I have made a trade with the Lady of the Lake," she said.

Hooking the end of the garment bag on a chair, Maddie unzipped it to reveal a beautiful sapphire gown, much like the one the elven princess Arwen wore in _Return of the King_. Seraphina also handed her a pair of sapphire-hued slippers-dyed to match the dress- and a small cedar wood box contained a silver-and-sapphire necklace and tear-drop shaped earrings matching the style of her son's gift.

"This is all so much," she stammered. "I can't accept this."

"It is overwhelming," Seraphina said, closing the lid of the jewelry box and placing it on the table. "You have done so much for the spirits of this world, Maddie-you and yours-that we are willing to express all our thanks to you. Ah, here's Daniel now."

Daniel Spring, looking every inch the way a Seasonal Spirit should look, glared at Mother Nature. "Seriously?"

"It works for your brother; it will work for all four of you," Mother Nature calmly replied, taking in the sight of her youngest child. Jazz has to giggle; her brother looked so cute. He was wearing a pair of forming fitting deerskin pants criss-crossed to look it had been wrapped around his legs like silk. He wore a bluish-purple linen shirt with a forest green waistcoat with round gold buttons. And of course-he was barefoot.

"Danny-boy, put some shoes on!" his father scolded from behind him. "The floor's colder than ice."

"Seasonal spirit, Dad," he said, looking over shoulder at his father, who grinned impishly back.

"There's more to the outfit, Daniel," his mother, said, handing him a small wooden box, similar to Maddie's. Inside was a necklace of forest leaves with an amethyst teardrop pendant on a silver chain.

"All my children will thus be marked," she stated. "Oh, I don't expect you to wear the outfit except on formal occasions, Daniel, but the necklace-always. Your brother and sisters will have their own variations."

"Thanks...I guess," he said, handing it to Jazz, who quickly fastened it around his neck.

"Okay, now, eat breakfast, and go. You need to get to the lake," Seraphina told him.

* * *

Fenton Works was a short, few blocks from Jack's Lake, as the Burgess children called it. Jamie Bennet was now fourteen and his sister, Sophie, was pushing seven. Both were still of the Age of Belief, as were Jamie's friends.

"I can't believe we get to go to school with Jack Frost," Jamie was saying to Claude, when Daniel swooped down from overhead and snatched his slouchy beanie. "But why does it have to be in the summer?"

"Off season," Jack replied, pelting his younger brother with a snowball. Daniel grinned and gave the hat back to Jamie, who got a snowball to the face, for sticking his tongue out at Spring. "I've been here for hours; what took you guys so long?"

"Mom," Jamie replied, and the same time as Daniel. "Jinx!"

Daniel "zipped" his lips, locked them, and threw away the key. Facing Jack with a knowing look, he gestured up and down his body. Jack rolled his eyes and turned away in disgust.

"Jack Frost!" Cupcake burst out laughing. "What are you wearing?"

"Nothing as outlandish as that elvish gettup Spring is wearing," he countered. "Ya, like?" He struck a super-model pose, sending everyone, except Sophie, falling down laughing.

Jack's outfit was even worse than Daniel's. He wore his usual 300 years old deer-hide trousers, but was sporting a white linen shirt, a light blue waistcoat with frost sparkling all over. Completing the ensemble was a fur-lined hooded cloak. "It's almost what I wore when I was human."

"Almost, but not quite, my son," Mother Nature said from the outline of a tree. "Come inside to my sanctuary, children. Be welcome!"

A necklace that had escaped Daniel's notice, caught Jamie's eye. "You're wearing jewelry now, Jack?"

Jack looked down at his winged blue sapphire snowflake pendant. "Mother's request," he said, quietly. Daniel nodded, showing them his own.

"So we've got to go inside Mother Nature's house in order to get to the North Pole?" Claude wondered.

"Not quite," Jack answered. "North gave me a special snowglobe to get to the school. It will only activate inside Mother's gardens."

"Which are on the outer fringes of her sanctuary," Daniel added. "North and Bunnymund have agreed to create talismans which will take the form of ordinary watches for the boys or jewelry for the girls so you can get back and forth at will to school."

"When we get to the school, MIM will explain everything else," Jack added. "Everything Spring and I have told you, was told to us by Mother a few days ago. We know nothing more than you."

"Then let's rock and roll!" the Burgess Seven shouted.


	2. 1 year

Spring: Changes

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

_The portal in the Fentons' lab no longer leads to the Ghost Zone, but to North's Workshop. Maddie has a hard time adjusting, and Lancer still gives Danny a detention. I'll cover that part in the next chapter._

* * *

**1 Year - Jack's Lake, North Pole, Mother Nature's Sanctuary**

* * *

"You smell like a privet shrub," Jack said, as Daniel touched down on a log on the north shore of the lake.

"You would too if you woke up in the middle of one with three wizards pointing wands at you," Daniel grumbled. "Why did I wake up in some obscure part of Scotland instead of at the lake, Jack? I know Aster let me sleep in one of the burrows he cleaned out at the Warren. I thought I was always supposed to wake up at the lake."

"I did too," Jack replied, "but you're awake and I can hand over the reins to you. Daniel..."

Before Jack could say anything else, two teenage girls came barrelling past him and threw themselves at Daniel and plant twin kisses on his flushing cheeks. "Leto, Day...get off!"

"Work to do," Leto said, brusquely. "Bye, Daniel."

"Later, Spring," Day exclaimed, kissing him again, before catching Wind and riding off again.

Rubbing his cheek with lake water, Daniel turned and shot his older brother a dirty look. "What was that all about?"

"Your day of waking," he replied. "Mom declared it to be your birthday. And for a gift, little brother, I'm going to treat you to the final snowball extravaganza of the season."

"What? Jack!"

* * *

"It's snowing again, Mom," Maddie heard her daughter say, just in time for the back door to blow open by a really strong wind and a snowball to hit her in the face.

"How many times have I told you boys not in the house?" she asked them sternly, a smile on her face.

"Sorry, Mom," her son sheepishly apologized, as he and the Spirit of Winter trooped into her kitchen.

"Danny!" Jazz cried, jarring his bones with a bear hug.

"Jazz, let go!" he protested. She laughed and ruffled his snow-white hair. He growled and muttered something under his breath, as he tried to reorder his disorderly hair. Emerald eyes glared at her playfully, before a small beam of ectoplasm hit her in the butt.

"Danny!"

"You asked for it."

"Mom!"

"You did," she answered. "Okay, coats off and I'll get food for everyone, before your teacher arrives."

"Where is everyone?" Daniel asked, looking around.

"In North's library," Jack said. "Katharine and Mr. Qwerty are assisting Mr. Lancer today. MIM is smirking about something."

"Well, North wasn't too happy about the exanded student and teacher lists," Daniel pointed out, as Maddie placed two dished out two plates of green eggs and ham. Daniel paused, fork uplifted, when the ham winked at him.

"Uh, Mom...?"

"I used the other ecto-skillet, Danny," she reassured him.

Spring looked at Winter and both boys shrugged, digging into the semi-live fare.

Kari whistled, trying to get the boys' attention. Their mother was calling and both were too consumed with eating mortal food. She whistled louder, then found a window in the kitchen that had been left unlatched. She opened it, then slammed it shut. Two repeats later, both boys had their noses pressed to glass, then grinned at each other.

"Let's go!" Jack shouted, grabbing his staff.

"No," Maddie replied, then pointed at the door connecting the lab to the Workshop. "School."

Daniel's face fell. "But Mom, Mother is calling us."

"I am your mother, Daniel Fenton, and you are going to school. Just because you're now an immortal spirit, does not mean you get to skip out on your classes. Now, march!"

"I'll fill you in, later, Spring," Jack told him, only to find himself joining his brother being frog-marched downstairs.

"I'm over 300 years old," Jack protested. "This is totally unfair!"

"Join the club," his brother remarked.

* * *

"Are you sure, they are at the lake?" Seraphina asked her daughters.

"They could be at the Pole by now," Leto answered, looking for a new skirt at the bottom of the trunk. "You know Spring wants to be with his family when he first wakes up."

Seraphina sighed and closed her eyes. "It's time he understood his duties."

"He knows why he is needed," Day said, looking up from the puzzle she was working on. "His friends and family were brought here by MIM as a support base for him."

"He has to begin the separation process," Leto argued, effectively shutting her mother out of the conversation. "Remember how it was for us?"

"Yeah, as least Jack was blessed to have his memories taken from him. Grandfather's boredorm was the catalyst to getting them back," Day shot back.

"Speaking of my father, have either of you two seen him today?" Mother Nature asked, ending the budding conflict.

"No," Day answered.

"Yes," Leto said. "Said something about taking the half-immortal and the ghost hunter on a tour of his world."

Mother Nature paled. "By the stars above!"

"Are you going to stop them?" Leto wondered.

"A little late for that," came the reply. "Since your brothers are nowheres around, I'll ask Kari to round them up for me."

"That'll work well," Day mumbled, hiding her face in her book once more.

* * *

_"Humpty dumpty sat on a wall,_  
_Humpty dumpty had a great fall;_  
_Threescore men and threescore more,_  
_Could not place Humpty as he was before."_

Mr. Lancer nodded, as Mr. Qwerty's voice faded away and folded his wings. Looking over at the class, he watched as some of them began shivering and one student, Miss Manson, wrinkled her nose slightly at the slight spring-like smell of a privet shrub in bloom wafted into the room from the door which opened and closed behind them. A yeti shook his fist at the older white-haired boy and yelled something in yetish at him before grunting at the teacher.

"That's Phil for ya," Jack answered Katharine's pointed stare.

"I'm not even going to ask," she replied. "We're learning about the Siege of Colchester today, Jack."

"Boys, Katharine, if you'll find your seats, we'll begin the lesson promptly," Mr. Lancer told them. "_The Olive Fairy Book_! Now, who is daring to interrupt my class?"

"Mom!" twin voices rang out.

"Yes," Mother Nature replied, binding their arms to their torso with vines. Tucking Jack's staff, which had clattered to the ground, under her arm, she nodded to Mr. Lancer. "These two are missing a very important meeting." Saying so, using an invisible tether, she propelled the boys along and out an unlatched window.

"Well!" was all Mr. Lancer could think to say, all thoughts of the reignition of the English Civil War fled his mind. Seeing the teenagers whispering, he cleared his throat.

"On June, 13, 1648..."

* * *

Mother Nature dumped both boys on the floor, then whipped the girls' magazines out of their hands. A look at the title indicated to Daniel, they'd been swapping girlish charming secrets again. He groaned slightly; the vines released him.

"Where are your companions?" Seraphina demanded, her fingers tightly wrapped around Jack's staff. The Winter Spirit paled, but said nothing. "I have not seen them for a sennight."

"Sleeping."

"In Paris."

"With Bunny."

"I just woke up!"

All four protests met deaf ears. "You four were tasked...Jack, what are they doing in the Pooka's Warren? All four of them?!"

He looked up at the ceiling. Day whistled a death march, while Leto and Daniel were trying hard not to laugh at comical expression on their mother's face.

She sighed and tossed him back his staff. "I thought I told you not to encourage them."

"Palasha was begging and Steve didn't see the harm in keeping everyone together," Jack began only find himself hanging from a nearby tree, wrists wrapped in really strong vines. Two vines wrapped around his feet and bound them to the other end of the branch.

"You will swing there until you tell me why in the hell I woke up in England and almost got zapped by wizards," Daniel hissed. "They couldn't see me, but they knew I was there, Jack."

"Daniel, let your brother down," his mother sharply reprimanded. "There will be no fighting in my home; am I clear?"

"Crystal," all four seasonal chirped. Mother Nature had them well-trained.

"All right, Jack," she said, folding her arms. "We're listening."

"Funny story," Jack said, rubbing the back of his neck. "See, it all started when Spring fell asleep when his southern season ended..."

"...so all Aditsan and Steve wanted to do was see how fast Bunnymund could run," he finished.

"Seriously?" Seraphina asked in shock.

"Yeah," Jack said, putting his hands in the pocket of his hoodie and scuffing his feet on her pristine, virgin forest floor.

"Stop that!" she snapped.

"Make me," he retorted.

"Could you guys quit?" came Spring's quiet voice. "Can I go back to Mr. Lancer's lesson, please, Mother? History is one of my favorite subjects, and I don't want fall behind. Not like I used to."

"Used to?" Day asked. "You used to skip your lessons when you lived in the Other World?"

Seraphina frowned. "Daniel, can you tell us why you would do such a thing?"

Daniel looked downwards, ashamed of himself. "It was to protect them," he mumbled. "I was the only one who could fight the ghosts; my parents are not the most competent ghost hunters on the block, but they are the best parents any kid could ask for."

Seraphina sighed. "Daniel, being a Spirit of a Season is very serious. You are part of helping keep the world in balance. An education is very important, but there will be times you will called away for meetings, _such as this one_." Here, she said the last part with a look of disgust at her oldest child, who just stuck out his tongue at her impudently.

"Imp," she scolded him.

"Best character on _Game of Thrones_," he replied. "Jamie started watching it a few weeks ago, and we're a bit behind catching up."

"I wish they'd show more of Daenrys," Day piped up. "I love her hair and clothes."

"Objects in the boob tube are closer than appear," Leto quipped. "Seriously, you two need to get out more."

"We're invisible to most people," Jack reminded her.

"Point," she conceded.

"Enough," Mother Nature reprimanded them. "Meeting adjourned. Daniel, Jack, go back to your lessons."

"Yes, ma'am," both boys replied.

* * *

"Daniel Fenton!" Maddie yelled, as her son gave her the yellow slip of paper Lancer had given her. "You skipped class to go to a meeting?"

"We were called, but you forced us to ignore the summons," Jack Frost icily told her. "We are the Spirits of the Four Seasons, children of Mother Nature and the Man in the Moon, who made us. I am over 300 years old, woman, and while I respect you as the mortal mother of my younger brother, you have yet much to learn about the proper order of things. Daniel needs you, Mrs. Fenton, but there will come a time when you will go the way of the earth and he will be on his own. The time of separation is coming, Maddie. Will you be ready when it comes?"

"Get out," she told him.

"Gladly," he replied, yanking open the back door of the kitchen. "Wind, take me home!"

Kari sprang to life around her little frost child and whisked him away, sending a whispered touch to her flower child questionly.

"Can't," he told her. "I'm grounded."

She tugged at his hair and clothes and lifted him slightly off the floor. _Come away,_ she seem to whisper. _We have a world to play in._

He closed his eyes softly in the free-flowing breeze and revelled in the ecstasy of the feeling. His mother cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, Wind. I am grounded for the next few weeks. You will have to play with the others."

_We will see, my flower child. _

"Daniel, close the door," Maddie said through gritted teeth.

"Yes, ma'am," he said quietly, watching Jack float in the wind off in the distance. By this time, he could have been in the Netherlands helping the tulips to bloom around the pretty windmills or in Rossiya, playing tag with Lel and Snegurka, or visiting Arendelle to give Olaf a warm hug and gerting chased by Princess Anna until he gave her a spring bouquet of snowdrops.

"Mom, what happens if I have to go to Rossiya or an island somewhere that requires me to shepherd a storm?" he asked her.

"The earth's weather does not need a spirit to control it," she told him sharply. "Go to your room. We'll talk about this when your father comes home."

Spring's head dropped. "Yes, ma'am," he politely replied, then turned and walked out the room.


	3. 1 year: June

Spring: Changes

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

_Okay, had to do some serious thinking on this next chapter, so that's why it took so long to update. Life also had something to do with the delay, but I digress. The book Danny is reading is __Yellowstone Has Teeth__; written by Marjane Ambler. I'm almost finished reading it myself. So, no, I don't own it either. Also, I did a bit of editing and corrected my pen name on the first chapter. _

* * *

**1 Year - Kitchen, Fenton Works**

* * *

"'_Mother Nature was still boss, no matter how much money, technology, and manpower the park threw at the fires_,'" Daniel read from the storm grey colored book in his hands, while simultaneously trying to eat Captain Crunch cereal. It was the last that was in the pantry, and Palasha was in Tinkerbell-mode, as Tucker called it, eating a few soggy pieces she filched from his bowl. Truth to be told, Dash found it cute.

"So why are you reading Yellowstone Has Teeth?" Dash asked. "You know it's the truth."

Mrs. Fenton huffed, returning to washing the breakfast dishes. "Because it was either that or spend all summer helping Mr. Lancer reorganize North's library."

"Dude, it's summer and you still got a detention?!"

Several pages later, Maddie threw the sponge at her son's head when he commented, "_'Mother Nature writes the rules.'_ Got that right!"

"Uh, Fenton..."

"Yeah, I know, Dash," Spring said, without looking up. "The book is a really fascinating first-hand account of a woman who lived and worked in Yellowstone during the 80s and 90s."

"Where'd you pick up that book?"

"Mr. Qwerty found it on some back shelf of Ombric's library. That guy has more freaking stories than the Library of Congress."

"Daniel Fenton, finish your breakfast, so I can get these dishes put away," his human mother interjected.

"Oh, sorry."

"And my sponge, if you please."

"Sheesh!"

"WATERMELON SUPPER TONIGHT!" Jack Fenton's over exuberant shout bellowed through the house. "Who wants to go the market with me?"

"ME!" the Spirit of Spring shouted, jumping out of his chair and knocking it over. Quickly turning around to inquire of his mother, the huntress laughed. "So long as you remember to bring me some olive oil next time you're in Greece, Danny."

He quickly hugged her, pecked her cheek, and was out the door quick as lightning.

Dash chuckled. "Is he already like this?"

"It's a Fenton male summer tradition," she mused. "Why don't you go with them, Dash? Danny won't be around for much longer."

"Yeah, the sleep thing," Dash replied. "Are you okay with the change and everything, Mrs. Fenton?"

"No," she stated, "but so long as I have breath in this body, Danny is my son, not _hers_."

Dash chose not to comment, nodded in agreement, and ran out the door to join the boys.


	4. 103 years

Spring: Changes

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**103 years: College of the North**

* * *

"Mind if I sit?" a girl with short, straw-colored hair asked, putting her tray down on the table next to him. Her gray eyes crinkled lightly in the corners.

"No," he replied, "Go ahead."

"Good," she stated. "I was gonna anyway. This place is really weird."

"You get used to it after a while," he answered. "I'm Daniel Spring."

"Margaret Angela Darling," she replied, taking a bite of her cheese sandwich. "For an insane school, the food's delish. Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have cheese on my face or something?" She fell out of her seat, laughing. "I still can't believe I said that when we first met."

The Spirit of Spring joined her; their laughter floating up to the treehouse above them.

A auburn-haired girl poke her head out the window. "Do you mind?!" she yelled down to them. "It may be our off-seasons, Spring, but some of us still have a bit of work to do."

That caused them both to crack up even more, falling over on their backsides. The girl in the treehouse huffed and slammed shut the window.

"Oh, man, did you see Day's face?" Daniel sputtered, trying to get his laughter back into control.

"Considering we've been repeating the same greeting for the last 3 spring cleanings?" Margaret Darling chortled.

"That is unusual for a Mother," Spring agreed. "Okay, now what was it you wanted to ask? Wind's messengers were a bit hard to read."

Margaret took another bite of her cheese sandwich. "College of the North still has the best food I've ever eaten." She chewed and swallowed. "What I wanted to know is what happened after Dash caught up to you and your human father."

Spring shrugged. "We went and got a watermelon. Family tradition thing."

"Did your mother ever get over her jealousy?"

"No," Spring said shaking his head. "Jack did warn me what to expect; that's why I began distancing myself after a few years. Margaret, it was very hard for me to let them go. They gave up their lives in our old world to come here to be my training wheels, so to speak. I...it still hurts to think about them sometimes."

"You're still human, spirit or not, Phantom," she said, using his chosen moniker. "Other than the fact that I'm always holding a freaking tray everytime we meet, that isn't why I came over. I found something online you need to see."

"I'll give you a lift," he said, knowing exactly where she wanted to go.

"Caught the elusive phantom, I see," Jamie Bennett commented. He was well over a hundred years old, and didn't look a day over fifty-five. Blazing wizards had all the luck, Margaret thought, especially Hogwarts-trained ones.

"Did you print it?" she asked.

"The cat and the poem?" he asked innocently.

"You and your fascination with dead cats," she snapped. "No, you goober, the other photo."

"Ah," he murmured. "I know just the one." With a flick of his wrist, he handed over a piece of paper he plucked from thin air.

Daniel grabbed the paper and began scanning the words printed in small letters below the diamond spider web pattern. He stared up in disbelief at Jamie and Margaret. "She's alive."

"Who is?" Margaret asked.

"Sam," Danny said. "She's in the infirmary. Jack hacked into the security yetis' cameras again, and spotted something dark against the snow. She's hasn't aged a day."

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" Margaret wondered.

"Unless she allied herself to Pitch or one of the other agents of darkness," Jamie replied. "Ombric says the dark ones have knowledge of the older ways."

"Possibly," Phantom stated, floating upwards. "Thanks, Margaret. Thanks, Jamie. Wind, take me to Sam! "

_With greatest love, flower child._

"You didn't tell him the photo was a week old, did you?" Jamie asked turning to her.

"I thought it best not to-considering who she is."

* * *

**AN: Think happy thoughts-like fluffy white marshmallow clouds or the bubonic plague. I will update the story in a few weeks when I know more of what happened to Sam. And the internet sucks royally where I live-that's the other shoe.**


	5. 103 years: Infirmary

Spring: Changes

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**103 years: College of the North/Infirmary**

* * *

"How can Jamie be over a hundred years old, when you are older than he is?" Margaret asked Danny, as they flew over to a retangular part of the school set apart set apart from the classrooms. Looking westward, they could see the science building, which was Danny's old house.

He shook the memory away. "I don't know, Margaret. It has something to do with the time difference between our worlds, I think."

"Maybe," she replied, as they landed outside a moss-green door. She banged the heavy brass knocker several times against the door. A heavy-set woman wearing a cream-colored Victorian dress, white apron, and lace cap answered the door.

"Hi, Aunt Agnes," they greeted her.

"Hello, dearies," she said, her faded greenleaf eyes sliding slightly to the right. "I know there are two of you, but I cannot see."

Spring smiled awkwardly at the woman. Aunt Agnes was a witch, who wandered in from the outside world. She could sense spirits, but not see them. Her healing ointments were a great source of joy to the few Aunts who worked in the infirmary.

"With me is the Spirit of Spring, Aunt Agnes," Margaret spoke up, raising an eyebrow at her companion. "We're here to see the Star Witch."

"Oh. Her." Aunt Agnes' voice went flat. "If you follow the pink corridor, she's in the 2nd room on the right. Get Aunt Phoebe to help you."

Daniel doubled over with laughter.

"When did she wake up?" Margaret asked, confused over Spring's reaction. "What is so funny?"

"Sam is a Goth," he exclaimed merrily. "She _**hates**_ pink."

"Oh, boy," Aunt Agnes said. "That explains those awful words the naughty girl uses."

"Thanks, Aunt Agnes," Margaret said to her. She grabbed Spring's arm and steered him toward the pink-glad saint's station. "I didn't know she could hear spirits."

"Got to file that one away for sure," Phantom told her. "Let's see if Sam can receive visitors."

"No," Aunt Phoebe told them. "She's currently sedated, and it will be up to Aunt Florence and Aunt Clara, as to when she'll be allowed..."

"Danny!" a hospital gown clad Sam yelled as she came running down the hall. "I smelled you all the way down the hall!" Two yetis skidded to a halt behind her; one trying to hide a wicked looking needle behind his back, as the Spring Spirit turned his emerald gaze on him.

"Sam, you've only been awake for about an hour. You should not be able to run about in your condition," she was chided by Aunt Phoebe.

"How many times do I have to tell you people, I'M FINE!" Sam yelled. "Where am I anyway?"

"College of the North," Margaret answered. "I'm Margaret and it was nice to meet you. See you when you wake up."

"What? Ouch!"

Danny shook his head. "Tucker was afraid of hospitals. There was the one time..."

"Spring," Aunt Phoebe, "it's time for you to sleep as well."

"What? OUCH!"

Margaret watched as Phantom faded away, leaving only a faint scent of lillies behind.

Aunt Phoebe mused on the situation as she recounted the story to the rest of the Aunts later during the morning meeting. "These are not normal students."

"No," Aunt Florence said slowly. "I agree. The girl was found sleeping outside in the snow a week ago. She should not have been able to run, no less than take a step."

"She is the Star Witch," Aunt Agnes explained. "Of all witches, she alone has the rapid healing of a ghost. The fact that she is acquainted with one of the sons of Mother Nature, shows that we need to find out more of her background."

"Even ghosts need time to heal from injuries," Aunt Clara argued. "This isn't normal."

"Agreed," Aunt Florence stated. "I will speak with one of the Guardians of Childhood on the morrow."

A bell sounded, signalling the changing of classes.


	6. 103 years: College of the North

Spring: Changes

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**103 years: College of the North/Pitch's Hole**

* * *

"Why are the school nurses called 'Aunts'?" Sam asked Margaret a few days later, while they walked toward the portal which would take them to Big Root. "It's racist."

"It isn't," Margaret told her. "When you use it like in context of the Civil War era or the African-American folk tales, then yes, it is derogatory, but I'm using it in the context of say, the sibling of -oh, say-my mother, Jane. The Aunts take their names from historical nurses recorded throughout history, but they aren't spirits."

"Oh," Sam muttered, deflated. "What happened to Danny?"

"Daniel? Oh, they put him to sleep," Margaret said. "I don't know what happened. One minute he was there, the next- poof! Gone."

"Well, at least I'll have you and Tucker to talk to. Any idea what book Mr. Lancer wants us to read this semester?"

"Um, Sam," Margaret asked, biting her lower lip. "Hasn't anyone explained anything to you?"

"Explained what?" Sam questioned her

"Whoo, boy!" Margaret muttered, rolling her eyes upward. "We have a long way to go."

* * *

(Later at lunch)

"Where are my parents? I haven't seen them or even the A-listers anywhere," Sam murmured, eyeing the little boy in short-sleeved skeleton suit. "Isn't he a little young to be at a high school?"

"I see you have met Big Brother," Helen said, giving the boy another rice cake. "He's a new legend that appeared back in 1947."

"Does he have anything to do with George Orwell's book _1984_?" Sam asked.

"Would have been the right time he first appeared," Helen mused, "His favorite pastime is shadowing Bunnymund."

"Jack's too," Maragret laughed. "That incident last spring with the carrots and the dye river!"

Helen laughed, while Big Brother hummed happily around the rice cake he was sucking on. "Quite the sight that was," she agreed. "So, Sam, how are you like the school so far?"

"Don't know," Sam grumbled. "No one will give me the time of day when I ask where my family and friends are, and Danny is missing!"

"Sam," Helen started, then stopping when Margaret shook her head.

"I'll take you over to see Pitch," Margaret suggested. "The Guardians don't have much to say about how the College of the North is run anymore. I mean, Jack is a student and all, but things are a lot different than when you last attended here, Sam. You going to finish your salad?"

Sam looked down at her lunch and for the first time since she'd woken up, she wished they had left her to die out in the snowy forest. "They are gone, aren't they?"

Helen nodded. "It's been a 100 years since you left to find the Star Witch, Samantha. Pitch Black can explain things a lot better than I can. I can promise you that the souls of your loved ones did not linger long in this world. Thana took them quickly."

"Thana?"

"Scythe swinging skeleton?"

"Oh, you mean Death? I thought you were Lady Death."

"I am the Lady of the Shadows," Helen corrected. "You girls had better hurry. Runes are next, and you are both in my class."

"Gotcha," Margaret chimed in. "Come on, Sam. Let's go see Pitch."

* * *

"Welcome to Pitch's Hole, girls," came the smooth voice of the Nightmare King. "Come to pay the piper, Mother?"

"No, shadow sneaking rat bag," Sam replied. "She brought me here because you knew all the answers. Where's Danny?"

"First, off, girl," the Boogeyman replied, gliding from the shadows that surrounded the cavern they were in, "tell me-did you find what you sought?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Sam groaned. "I don't know!"

"Watch your tongue, girl," Pitch cooly said, descending from the pillar he stood on. "Or I'll feed you to my nightmares. They are hungry."

"I'm so scared," Sam taunted.

"Sam," Margaret tugged on her sweater, "Don't. The shadows..."

"Wise words, Mother," Pitch said, looking down his nose at them. "Follow me."

The shadows pulled back to reveal a spiral staircase descending down into the depths of the cavern. Margaret looked helplesly at Sam, who squared her shoulder, and stalked off after the Boogeyman.


	7. Scenes

Spring: Changes

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**Scenes **

* * *

For TylarSphinx97 who suggested it in a review for **Spring**.

Year 16: At the Beach

The Guardians of Childhood were enjoying summer vacation at Mother Nature's Sanctuary in the Caribbean. They were watching the Spirits of Summer and Spring bury the Spirit of Winter in the white sands.

"Is it safe for Frostbite to get this much sun?" Aster asked, Seraphina, who was watching the scene below with sparkling mischief in her eyes.

"Wait for it..." she whispered, hearing a faint crackling sound in the wind. "And...now!"

Jack froze and exploded shards of icy sand everywhere and chased his younger brother and sister out over the edge of the ocean, where they danced with wind in the moonlight.

"Eh?"

" During the day, I usually find tasks for him up in the mountains," Mother Nature replied. "Each of them has a daily task. Darn!"

"What is it?"

"That pesky mortal woman, that's what!"

Aster's ears twitched as he watched the ghost huntress calling out to her son to come in for the night. The boy in question froze in mid-air and turned in the direction of the call. He spoke something to Leto and Frostbite, and then floated on downwards toward the red-brick monstrosity the mortal family of his called home.

"Never mind, Sera," he told his oldest friend. "Tooth framed this for ya. She found it sitfing through some of his memories." He handed her a simple golden frame. It was Daniel's first spring and he was wearing the tshirt Tooth had traded a heavy magical favor to the Leprecaun for the shamrock kitten tshirt. Daniel had promptly gotten rid of the hummingbird shirt she'd given him when he finally crossed the barrier for the final time on his fourteenth birthday. Looking at the boy in the photograph, he was playing in a field of flowers not far from the Parthenon. A kitten was cradled in his arms like a baby, and another was sleeping on his head.

"He was an adorable anklebiter at 11 years old," Aster told her.

"Whatever did become of that tshirt?" Seraphina wondered.

"No idea," Aster said, a discomforting feeling in his stomach.

"First thing in the morning," Seraphina decided, "he's getting a kitten. Lots of 'em."

"Uh, Sera..."

"Don't try to talk me out of it, Aster. Not this time!"

Aster raised his hands in surrender. He knew when it was safe to push Mother Nature's button, and when not to. "Whatever you say, Sera, whatever you say."

* * *

Year 42: Fentonworks

Maddie smiled as the sweet smell of roses wafted into the room "Hey, Danny!"

Two skinny arms reached around her waist and hugged her. "Hi, Mom! All ready for tomorrow's class?"

"Yes," she giggled. "Let's hope this group has a sense of humor."

Her son's laughter was contagious. just the thought of Ember standing in the middle of a science room with white flour and salt water dusting her clothes sent her into another fit of giggles

* * *

Year 43: Infirmary

"Danny?"

"Mom."

"I know I won't be around forever, but please, remember me when I'm gone."

"I will. I'm sorry for all the times I will forget."

"Forgiven."

"Good, now change to orange blossoms or something. Venus Flytraps stink."

"Sorry."

* * *

Year 6: Portal

"You're leaving?" the Spirit of Spring hovererd a few feet above the floor of North's library. A small glowing portal hummed nearby.

"We'll miss you, Phantom, but you have your life to live and we have ours. You are needed here," Dash told him.

"Yeah, dude, party on!" Kwan cheered.

"Kwan."

"Sorry."

* * *

Year 43: Infirmary

"What is that smell?" one of the Aunts asked, pinching her nostrils shut. These two nurses had not chosen their working names as of yet, it was well known to the visitor who slept in the chair by the empty bed.

"It's coming from the empty chair," the first nurse said. "Spirit?"

Daniel roused briefly, emerald eyes red-rimmed. He knew they couldn't see him, so he tipped over the glass on the table next to him.

"You have to leave now," the second Aunt told the unseen visitor. "We need to ready the room for another patient."

The glass was hurled at them, smashing against the far wall.

"Spring!" came the voice of Aunt Nightingale from the doorway. "We're sorry for your lost, but this is no way for a son of Seraphina to behave."

A pillow was hurled in her direction.

Marching into the room, she threw open a window. "OUT!"

The wind fluttering the curtains marked his passing.

(later)

She found her little brother in their parents' bedroom surrounded by old clothes, photos and trinkets of a by-gone era. She paused at he looked up.

"They're gone, Jazz!" His eyes matched her, red-eyed from grieving. "Everyone's going away: Sam, Tucker, the A-list, Dad, and now, Mom!"

She sighed, knowing how many times they've had this talk over the years. "I know, Danny," she said calmly.

"Why?"

"It is the way of the world," she explained. "I'm almost 65 years old myself. I am not going to live forever. Sam disappeared looking for a mysterious legend about a trio of witches. Tucker burned himself inside-out from the drugs he became addicted to after Sam left. He was not strong enough, Danny, and was envious of you."

"He wanted to be a pianist," her brother interrupted. "I saw him at Vlad's funeral."

"Impossible," Jazz scoffed. "Tucker was dead by then."

"I know," Danny said, bright green eyes counting the individual brown fibers in the carpet. "Rune let him through the veil so he could say goodbye. He had a green streak a mile wide."

"What I don't understand," Jazz said, voicing her though out loud, "is why the A-list came and then left within a few short years. I thought once we crossed over there was no going back."

"Only for them," Danny replied. "That was the only path open for them."

"You left Mom and Dad for last, and cut out Mr. Lancer altogether."

"..."

"I know," was all she said, kneeling down and hugging her little brother to her chest.


	8. 16 years: Kittens

Spring: Changes

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**Year 16: Kittens**

* * *

_Y'all are really going to hate Maddie in this chapter._

* * *

"Daniel!"

The backdoor of the Fenton residence was violently thrown open and a red-headed whirlwind came racing in the kitchen and bounced him out of his chair, his cereal and milk strewn on the floor.

"Day, I was eating!" her brother protested.

"Never mind that," she told him. "Come on, I tell you on the way."

"On the way where?"

"Greece, goober!"

"Lady Bast really said yes?"

"More than that," Day told him. "She came herself and brought the best of all litters to us to choose from."

"That's awesome! Let's go!"

"Danny, sweetie," Maddie's voice brought him up short.

"Ma'am?"

"Clean up your mess, dear," his mother told him. "You agreed to help your father and I in the lab today."

"I did?"

"Just now, sweetie," came the sugary acidic tone.

"Yes, ma'am," he said quietly. "You'll have to go to Greece without me, Day. Sorry."

"But Mom got special permission from Lady Bast to adopt some of her children, and we can only do so during this window."

"You go without me," Danny told her quietly, escorting her to the door. "I have to help my parents in the lab."

"She made it up, Spring," Day announced, hands on hips. "You can't let her keep doing this."

"Just go, Day," he said.

She huffed and called the wind.

_Come dance. Come ride. Come see the world, flower child._

"Not today, Wind," he said, shutting the door.

Sometime after lunch, Jack took off his goggles and stared hard at his son, who kept staring at the clock. "Danny-boy?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Why don't you go outside and get some air? It isn't right you should be kept indoors like this."

"Can I go to the lake?"

"That's within the boundaries your mother allows so I guess so. Be back in an hour."

"Thanks, Dad!" Danny hugged him tightly, before racing upstairs and out the backdoor before his father could change his mind.

"Wind, take me..." he nearly knocked over his mother and sister so excited to get out of the cramped confines of four walls.

"Where do you thing you're going?" Maddie asked over the roar of the wind.

"To the lake," he mumbled.

"You're not going to the lake, Daniel Fenton," his mother said, iron in her voice. "You may go as far as the back fence, but that's it."

"Yes, ma'am," he answered politely, opening the door for her.

"Thank you, sweetie."

Jazz gave him an apologetic look, and rolled her eyes.

_Are you ready to travel, flower child? There still time to get to the Haven._

"Only as far as the top of the oak tree, Wind," he said bitterly. "That's as far as I am allowed to travel. "

"Which is stupid," Leto said, alighting on top of the fence. "Are you coming or not? Lady Bast says you must come and make a choice soon. You always loved it when we went to the beach when you woke up."

"I can't," Danny told her. "I'm miserable, Leto, but I can't disobey my mother. Tell Mom and Lady Bast I'm sorry."

Leto sighed. "Alright, Spring," she said, a bit sad and disappointed.

* * *

A black cat with yellow-green eyes purred loudly as it rubbed his head against the boy who was lost in his thoughts. Day had dropped her off about an hour ago.

"Ailuros," he said, naming her.

"Danny, sweetie, dinner is almost ready. Please go wash up."

Ailuro tried to follow her new master, only to find herself locked out in the cold. "No filthy animals in my house," she heard the older human female say. "In the morning, you take it back to the animal shelter. I told you no pets, and I mean it, young man."

"But, Mom, she was a gift from Lady Bast. I can't just give her back."

"You can and you will, young man. End of discussion."

"Yes, ma'am."

There were times when Danny really disliked his mother. Later that evening, when everyone was asleep, Danny deactivated the alarm on his window, and slipped out. He picked up Ailuros and called out, "Wind, take me home!"

_Gladly, flower child. Be joyful._

**Hours later...**

"DANIEL FENTON, WHERE DID ALL THESE CATS COME FROM!"


End file.
